Global Usage of a Language Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Global Usage of a Language - Assignment Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that language is a uniquely human experience. The need to communicate and its method (language) are based in the human psyche and passed on from one generation to the next. Language is closely bound up with the forms of human thought. It serves a vast range of communicative needs, from getting the neighbor to keep the music down, to telling jokes, making declarations of love or hate, or praying etc. It also functions in the middle of complex civilizations, not just as a way of communication, but as an indicator of social identity, a sign of association to a social class, ethnic group, or country.  Every word in a language is a term. Every term has both meaning an assumption, and this is why language barriers are more than measly communication barriers, why something is always lost in translation. A language portrays society and emotion in its very essence. It develops as a people develop. Hence to understand a particular language is to live within it and its culture. This is where swear words get their power from, for example damn, shit all have different textual meanings but are conversationally used as swear words. Linguistics is the study of language and concerns itself with all aspects of how people utilize language and what they have to know in order to do so.  All languages change, they have histories, and they live and die along with the societies they belong to. Human languages are typically referred to as natural languages. A common progression for natural languages is that they are considered to be first spoken, and then written, and then an understanding and explanation of their grammar is attempted. Any language that is in a constant state of change is known as a living language or modern language.  A language that ceases to change or develop is classified as a dead language. The most universal process leading to language death is one in which a society of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in an additional language, and gradually shifts loyalty to the second language until they stop to use their original (or heritage) language. This is a process of incorporation which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a people.